2 people got electrocuted when they stepped out of the car

[Zee]

What a night today was.

A college couple was killed Wednesday afternoon when they stepped out of their stalled car and onto a flooded Queens intersection electrified by a power line felled by lightning, authorities said.

As Alana Berenson, 19, screamed in agony from the fatal 4,000-volt shock to her body, her boyfriend, Joseph Cheetham, 23, of Pittsburgh, jumped out to save her, according to police and witnesses.

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My router blew out today cuz of that said lightening storm too...

and as I was driving home, i saw a fedex truck on the lie, the cargo part was lying on the road, and the truck itself with the driver was like a 100 yards ahead, slowly backing up. There was a truck behind the cargo part, that must have slammed into the it when the 2 parts of the truck came apart....

 

[watek]

Horrible!

 

[tranceport]

that sucks

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Just curious, wouldn't the rubber on the shoes do anything? Or is that too much voltage that rubber won't matter?

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: AgaBooga
Just curious, wouldn't the rubber on the shoes do anything? Or is that too much voltage that rubber won't matter?

Only if the soles of their shoes were 3 feet tall.

 

[n0cmonkey]

2 fried college students, well done, and a side of fries.

 

[MagicianBdotCom]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: AgaBooga
Just curious, wouldn't the rubber on the shoes do anything? Or is that too much voltage that rubber won't matter?

Only if the soles of their shoes were 3 feet tall.

lol, I guess I gotta start buying stripper shoes or shoes that don't allow water in.

 

[SuperTool]

It's like Romeo and Juliet. Except in water with a hot electric wire in it.

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: SuperTool
It's like Romeo and Juliet. Except in water with a hot electric wire in it.

I can't picture the complete circuit, Electric pole --> water --> person --> ????

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: TuxDave

Originally posted by: SuperTool
It's like Romeo and Juliet. Except in water with a hot electric wire in it.

I can't picture the complete circuit, Electric pole --> water --> person --> ????

Me either. What caused the electricity to flow through her heart?

I guess the voltage and potential amperage was enough.. obviously.

It probably didn't necessarily complete a circuit, but just energized her body.. not really sure how that works.

 

[Spencer278]

Originally posted by: TuxDave

Originally posted by: SuperTool
It's like Romeo and Juliet. Except in water with a hot electric wire in it.

I can't picture the complete circuit, Electric pole --> water --> person --> ????

The person heart was in parral with the water so some of the current will chose that path. The resistance of the water between the person two feet cause a voltage drop between your two feet.

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: Spencer278

Originally posted by: TuxDave

Originally posted by: SuperTool
It's like Romeo and Juliet. Except in water with a hot electric wire in it.

I can't picture the complete circuit, Electric pole --> water --> person --> ????

The person heart was in parral with the water so some of the current will chose that path. The resistance of the water between the person two feet cause a voltage drop between your two feet.

What could be the voltage drop from one foot to another? I'm guessing the puddle is somewhat wide and so that the voltage should be pretty much even throughout the puddle. If I had to really guess, I would say that the reason why electricity could possible shoot through her is because the resistance of the pole to water through granite to 0V potential was much higher than pole to water through body to grounded car metal or something else.

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: watek
Horrible!

 

[vood0g]

Originally posted by: tranceport
that sucks

 

[halik]

damn that's horrible,
mad props to the kid's character though - if i had to go, those circumstances would be the prefered way.

 

[3chordcharlie]

The trouble is water is a bad conductor, so the impedance (AC power lines I assume) of the human body isn't high enough to discourage significant use of that path. With a few thousand volts and a fair bit of current flowing in the puddle, enough current would take the 'body' path to be lethal.

You'd be safer standing in a puddle of salt water, which conducts much better, making your heart a significantly less attractive path, and maybe dropping the current through you to non-lethal levels.

 

[Eli]

It would be aweful to watch someone be electrocuted

Not exactly a quick way to go.

It's too bad help didn't arrive fast enough to resuscitate them... usually you can when it was electricity that stopped the heart in the first place, no?

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: Eli
It would be aweful to watch someone be electrocuted

Not exactly a quick way to go.

It's too bad help didn't arrive fast enough to resuscitate them... usually you can when it was electricity that stopped the heart in the first place, no?

Not when it's massive amounts of electricity. If a small electrical shock put the heart into a bad rhythm, or even stopped it completely, you might have a shot.

These unfortunate folk were probably pretty badly cooked

 

[Amused]

How shocking!

 

[StrangerGuy]

This belongs to the "OMG" category. :Q

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Amused
How shocking!

..and here you are roasting people in the 600lb woman thread..

 

[faenix]

that's near where I live.

 

[Bassyhead]

man thats terrible

 

[Kelemvor]

Not a pretty thought but it might be better that they both went. I wouldn't want to live with an image of my wife being electricuted in front of my eyes for the rest of my life. At least now they are together in heaven.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: Amused
How shocking!

..and here you are roasting people in the 600lb woman thread..

Hey now, at least I didn't blame these people for their problems.

Nice use of the "roasting" comment, as well. :beer: